NPD November: Console launches boost total sales to $2.7bn

NPD has released its November 2013 US retail report, revealing total game sales increased seven per cent year-over-year to $2.74bn.

Thanks to the arrival of the next-gen consoles and strong Wii U sales, hardware had its best November in recorded history – spiking 58 per cent to $1.3bn for the period.

All three major hardware makers were quick to boast their respective figures:

"PS4 was the top-selling console for November and PlayStation was No. 1 in sales overall for home consoles," Sony wrote on its PlayStation blog.

"November NPD Group figures released today revealed 909,132 Xbox One units were sold in the US in the console's first nine days, making it the fastest-selling console on the market in the US,” Microsoft countered on Xbox Wire.

Xbox One sales averaged a volume of more than 101,000 consoles per day, significantly outpacing the nearest competitor."

Nintendo shared that its hardware systems saw an increase of 100 per cent over the month prior, thanks in large part to Super Mario 3D World's release on Wii U and Zelda: A Link Between Worlds' arrival on 3DS. The former sold more than 215,000 combined digital and physical units in its first eight days on the market, according to the company.

The firm also stated that Wii U hardware sales specifically increased by more than 340 per cent over sales in October,” and the 3DS had moved past 10.5m system sales total after moving nearly 770,000 units of the Nintendo 3DS family.”

Still, it wasn't all good news for the industry. Software sales decreased 24 per cent year-over-year to $1.1bn, despite major AAA releases contributing during the period such as Call of Duty: Ghosts and Battlefield 4.